Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)

As Ms Considine can imagine, I am disappointed. Is the supplier reputable? I will provide some context. I regularly get the commuter train from Drogheda to Dublin. I board it at Skerries. There are only four carriages, and I have sent photos to Irish Rail to highlight the issue. People have to stand. To be honest, the carriages are fairly dirty. It is not a particularly pleasant experience to stand in one of the carriages, let alone in a very tight and constrained space, for 50 minutes. That is the time it takes because there are regular delays coming into Connolly Station.

Given that deployment of these sets has been pushed out to quarter 2 of 2027, I would very much appreciate if some new carriages were deployed for use on the northern commuter line as soon as possible or if Ms Considine could look at the service. Four carriages at peak time and during commuter times are simply not sufficient. The confined space means I cannot encourage people to avail of public transport. Separately, people cannot get buggies or wheelchairs onto the train. Those with accessibility issues will not get the train because they are afraid of being pushed over. This matter has been ongoing for some time.